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The Microinsurance Revolution

Tina Rosenberg

June 06, 2012 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: India

If rich people need life insurance, poor people need it more. Here’s how millions of poor people are getting it – including people with AIDS.

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Can Coffee Kick-Start an Economy?

Daniel Bergner

April 06, 2012 |

The New York Times |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Uganda, Kasese, Western Region

African coffee growers sell their raw beans cheaply to traders, earning very little for their work. The creator of Good African Coffee in Uganda was able to sell the first African roasted coffee internationally by selling consumers the story of the coffee.

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Prizes With an Eye Toward the Future

Tina Rosenberg

February 29, 2012 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Agencies across the corporate, government, and nonprofit sectors are recruiting ideas from the public by offering prizes for solving challenges. Prize incentives have spurred innovation for centuries, but fell out of favor as the preferred method in the 1800s. Now, prize-based incentives are back, in part because of a flood of new philanthropic money, and because prizes cast a wider net to a largely more educated and tech-savvy global population.

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Outsourcing Is Not (Always) Evil

David Bornstein

December 08, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The United States can outsource certain kinds of "microwork," such as accurately digitizing large swaths of information, to developing countries without taking jobs from Americans ― if it’s done carefully, and ethically, as some organizations are working to do. As the author Robert Wright has argued, we no longer live in a zero-sum world, where one person’s, or one country’s gain, must be another’s loss.

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Making Low-Interest Auto Loans Work

Lisa Margonelli

August 16, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Vermont

When you don’t live in a city, if you don’t have a car, you don’t have a job. But car payments can eat up a salary quickly - a New England program offers low-cost car loans to people who need them most.

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On the Road, and Out of the Red

Lisa Margonelli

August 11, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Keene, New Hampshire

More Than Wheels, a New Hampshire-based non-profit offers an economically stable solution to the high cost of owning a car. The program offers low-cost car loans that go toward the purchase of fuel-efficient vehicles.

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Out of Poverty, Family-Style

David Bornstein

July 14, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

A non-traditional program called the Family Independence Initiative (F.I.I.), uses a radically different approach from the traditional American social service model to empower entire families alleviate themselves from poverty. The results in multiple states thus far have been so striking, that this model of self-sufficiency may be able to have a significant impact reducing poverty nationwide.

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Paying for Their Crimes, Again

Tina Rosenberg

June 06, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Boston, Massachusetts

Felons get out of jail owing hundreds or thousands of dollars in court and parole fees, acting as an often insurmountable barrier preventing them from reintegrating into society and staying out of jail. What's worse, these fees often end up costing the state more than they produce. Two columns on a program called the Clapham Set, which erases or reduces debts for felons who take classes and job training.

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A Way to Pay for College, With Dividends

David Bornstein

June 02, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

Low-income students are always looking for ways to finance their education. A new system using “human capital contracts” to pay for higher education isn’t as scary as it sounds.

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Instead of Student Loans, Investing in Futures

David Bornstein

May 30, 2011 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Colombia

For millions of students who could succeed in college, the limiting factor is money. Is it possible to finance higher education the way we finance start-up companies? A company called Lumni uses “human capital contracts” to offer loans for students contingent upon 14 percent of the student's salary for 118 months after graduation. There are risks to this approach and not a lot of years or data available to be sure of its efficacy, but results are promising already—with a default rate under 3 percent.

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